Transcript Gender Differences

Gender Differences
What is the Difference?
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Individual is autonomous (Self-deciding)
We are socialized to communicate differently as
men and women
Women often communicate based on what they
think their roles in society are. (caregiver)
Women who don’t feel they meet social norms,
usually have a lower self-concept and lower
communication skills.
Men vs. Women
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When communicating, men are more likely to
describe others by their abilities
“she writes well.”
Women describe others by self-concepts
“She thinks she writes well.”
Men categorize people by non-social things
(flying airplanes)
Females categorize by more interpersonal things
(ex: relationships)
Continued…
•Men tend to mentally separate and store
information in very organized yet completely
separate compartments, like in a file-cabinetdrawer system
•Women see how details and information relate to
each other, with their inherent underlying and
interrelated connections.
•Men are logical, women are emotional. Pros and
Cons?
Cultural differences
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American children are taught to stray away from
dependence and being helpless
Most American families want to teach their kids to
stand up on their own and communicate selfsufficiently
In Eastern countries, they teach interdependence, to
rely on each other for needs.
Therefore children have a higher self-esteem at an
earlier age because they value being helpful, in
cooperative groups.
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While Northern Europeans and European Americans feel most comfortable
at an arm's length away in a social interaction
Hispanics would consider that distance unfriendly.
Asian cultures do not believe in touching in public settings, and they don't
favor direct eye contact.
Like the Asian culture, Hispanics also view direct eye contact as a lack of
respect.
One significant difference between these two cultures is the way touching in
public is perceived. Hispanics are a "high touch" society.
http://www.ehow.com/info_8475600_different-cultural-communication-styles.html
How does this affect
communication?
If we don’t understand each other, the wall for
communication breaks.
Halo Effect
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Tendency to judge other people’s personalities
upon observing a single characteristic, trait or
behavior without further verification.
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Let’s look at some examples? You know this
person.
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What do you think
of when you see
him?
Halo Effect
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What can we assume about these people?
Stereotyping
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Definitely affects communication!
Generalizations of perceptions about a person or group
Can be positive-it forces us to find out more about the
person we are stereotyping and learn from that
experience. We communicate to reduce that uncertainty
we feel.
Can be negative (racism, sexism, ageism, etc…)this
form of discrimination harms communication and our
attempts of communicating well.
Emotional States
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Our emotion affects the way we communicate as
well.
Examples: mad, sad, happy, frustrated, guilt,
fear, surprise, love
Good and Bad moods also greatly affect our
filtering of messages *selective hearing
Now What?
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Improving perception is an important first step in
becoming a competent communicator.
Question the accuracy of your perception: “I think I
saw that correctly, but what do I know that could
help me sort this out?”
Seek more information to verify perceptions *TALK
about it, try to understand!
Realize that the perception of people may need to be
changed over time. Be able to say “I was wrong.”